A former Lord Mayor of Birmingham is planning a new career – as a movie mogul.

Sir Bernard Zissman - the man who helped to secure Symphony Hall, the ICC and Millennium Point for the city - is seeking to raise £9m for a film about a Hungarian whose idea for a Jewish state led to the creation of Israel.

Theodor Herzl was a journalist who also dreamed of being a successful engineer, a famous lawyer and a playwright.

He died in 1904 aged 44, exactly the same number of years before Israel was created.

Having already written Knight Out With Chamberlain (2002), Sir Bernard’s second book, Herzl’s Journey (2008), featured the author taking an imaginary, century-long journey across Europe with Herzl in order to explore the need for a Jewish state and how it came to fruition after his death.

It also questions, with the benefit of hindsight, whether he has anything to regret given that his own family paid a ‘terrible price for the commitment of one man’s dream’.

After three years of learning the ropes of how to produce a film, Sir Bernard said a final working script would be ready next month with a view to raising the funds and starting to shoot next year.

Already, several potential collaborators have been ditched en route to building a team of passionate Hungarians who not only share his vision but have the specific talents to realise it – now 74, director Peter Medak’s credits include Peter O’Toole’s The Ruling Class (1972).

Sir Bernard, whose grandfather left Biala Podlaska on the Polish/Russian border in 1906 because of the threat from violent, organised ‘pogrom’ attacks, originally worked for the family menswear business before turning to politics.

Now in his 70s, the father of three and grandfather of seven said: “When I began I had no knowledge of how to make a film other than of going to the cinema to watch them.

“But I try never to start anything that I don’t think I can finish.

Sir Bernard Zissman's book about Theodor Herzl

“Not everyone in their life has the opportunity to make a film. I’m totally optimistic this one will get made.

“It’s about Herzl’s life and his dream to create a national home for Jewish people.

“It’s not just about the Holocaust, which cost the lives of six million Jews and others as well.

“I want the audience to understand how the state of Israel came about, as an act of conscience.

“After watching Schindler’s List, I was inspired and moved and I had enjoyed it.

“I want people to laugh and to cry, and Herzl had plenty to cry about as well as plenty of enjoyment and success.

“He worked himself to death. His wife, Julie, died the following year.

“Of his three children, one died in a concentration camp, another committed suicide and the other one from drugs.

“A grandson jumped off a bridge. All were re-interred in the state of Israel.

“This is the kind of film that could win an Oscar if the story is good enough and if it’s well acted.”